Is my babymoon plan bananas?
June 13, 2018 12:29 PM   Subscribe

Mr. just_ducky and I are planning to go to France for 3 weeks in August; during that time I will be 22-25 weeks pregnant. Am I crazy for thinking this is doable?

We were already planning our 6th annual honeymoon when I found out I was pregnant with just_duckling earlier this year, yay! We've gone to Europe in the summer for the last 5 years, traveled quite a bit in France, and are trying to decide whether to go ahead with our travel plans anyway. We would be flying from Vancouver, so 10ish hour flights. To be clear, we haven't booked anything yet.

You can assume for the purpose of this question that:
-we would get appropriate travel insurance that covers pregnancy and trip cancellation
-we would have clearance from our healthcare providers (I have already run this by them and they were supportive)
-we can communicate my condition effectively, as Mr. just_ducky is fluent in French
-we are experienced travelers generally
-I am aware of what I can and can't eat in France, as well as the increased toxoplasmosis risk
-I do not have any particular pregnancy risks currently
-I have compression stockings for the plane

The plan would be to visit 5-6 cities, traveling by car and train. We tend to like to meander through cities, drive in the countryside, take small group food tours, and visit major attractions. We usually stay in private aribnbs or hotels.

What I want to know is whether traveling for three weeks while I am 5 months pregnant is too ambitious? We would be careful not to plan too much in any one day and take lots of breaks etc (that is what we normally do anyway!). But will I just be hot and grumpy and tired the whole time? Is it stressful to be in a foreign country while pregnant? I would love to hear from other MeFites who have traveled while pregnant and what that was like. This is my first, so everything is new for me, and I just don't have a good sense of whether I am bananas for thinking this can work.
posted by just_ducky to Travel & Transportation around France (30 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
We did a similar trip during the 2'nd trimester. Take it slowly and you will be fine.
posted by WizKid at 12:54 PM on June 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


France in August (the weather info, in particular)
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:57 PM on June 13, 2018


My wife and I did Greece at about that point in her pregnancy (maybe more like 4.5 months) and everything was smooth sailing. We didn’t even have to take it that slow. Our itinerary was similar to yours; a few cities, wandering around. She even had work to do (it was a half-business trip) and there were no problems.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:58 PM on June 13, 2018


This kind of thing has huge individual variability but for some of the pregnant people I've known, the fifth month is where things start getting harder: less energy, more exhaustion, new symptoms like heartburn and (sometimes) a resurgence of morning sickness. One person who didn't actually have morning sickness earlier on started dealing with fairly regular nausea around that time. But everyone's different! If you can cancel your trip without too much of a financial hit, it's certainly worth giving it a try and seeing how you feel closer to the date.
posted by halation at 1:05 PM on June 13, 2018 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: Just one quick note: We have been to France in August before, and are aware of the weather situation. I only book accommodations with A/C :)
posted by just_ducky at 1:06 PM on June 13, 2018


YMMV - my nausea was triggered throughout my pregnancy by heat and humidity. It was October in San Diego and humidity was about 60-70% and I couldn't step outside the house. Otherwise, my 4-5th month was relatively easiest (and my pregnancy was such a traumatic nightmare I probably won't have any more kids.)
posted by Everydayville at 1:11 PM on June 13, 2018


We went to Germany last summer when I was about that far along in my pregnancy. I had no problems, though how you feel will depend on how your body is dealing with being pregnant.

Things that helped me:

-we made sure to get the seats we wanted on the plane. For me, it was an aisle seat in the back where there were only two seats in the row. That way I could get up and stretch and use the bathroom whenever I wanted without tripping over someone. It’s probably not as big a deal if you aren’t flying coach.

-bring an empty water bottle and fill it after security, so you can help yourself stay hydrated on the plane.

-It will likely be hot. It was so worth it to stay in places with AC. I found that I was a lot more sensitive to heat.

-we kept things low key. Sounds like that’s how you travel too. There were days when I wasn’t feeling up to much, so we did stuff that didn’t require much effort.

Have fun and enjoy your freedom!
posted by Maeve at 1:16 PM on June 13, 2018


It really depends on the person. I ran a half marathon at 14 weeks in Europe (we had a runcation!), travelled from London.

I also travelled to Canada/ USA on a 8 and 11 hour flight at 21 weeks, flew into Toronto, took the rail across Canada, flew out of Vancouver. This trip was two weeks long.

I also travelled to another foreign city in Asia for work on a 12 hour flight at 32 weeks, and when I was there, I worked 16-hour-days, and flew back on another 12 hour flight at 33 weeks. So it really depends.

I did many many things when I was pregnant. I swam, I ran, I travelled to conferences near and far, I lifted weights. About the only thing I did not do was ski, or kayak (had seriously considered this).

Morning sickness and fitness levels are probably determining factors. I was fit and I did not have morning sickness.

I find with pregnancy that there were a lot more scare stories than there were helpful advice. I even ignored most of the food “restrictions” which were just really outdated bits of information that is totally not relevant to First World health and hygiene standards.
posted by moiraine at 1:17 PM on June 13, 2018 [2 favorites]


Just do it! The second trimester is the best time to travel; the nausea should be gone and you won't have a huge baby bump. Live your life (while you still can). If you have to take it slow, or feel a little sick, you can totally handle it in the moment. But don't not go just because these things might happen.

My experience is that at 22-25 weeks I felt like my normal self, just a bit more hungry and tired.
posted by stripesandplaid at 1:25 PM on June 13, 2018 [2 favorites]


To be honest, however hard travelling while pregnant is (which is not at all, in my case), travelling with a baby is going to be 100x harder. So you should make the most of it and enjoy being able to do more than one thing a day, the alone time, eating at nice places for dinner, and not lugging around baby gear.
posted by moiraine at 1:28 PM on June 13, 2018 [11 favorites]


This is so incredibly variable by person. When I was 5 months, frankly I felt like complete shit. My morning sickness was still around, I felt exhausted, had low energy and tons of heartburn, back pain, and round ligament pain, among other things. My husband and I decided not to do our baby moon and honestly it was the best decision for us. I never really felt great at all during my entire pregnancy. However I know some women who felt amazing by the time they were in their second trimester so I do hope that for you!! It sounds like if you have the insurance and it’s not a huge financial hit to cancel then go for planning it. Good luck!
posted by FireFountain at 1:30 PM on June 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


If there are any findings of possible problems on the 20-week anatomy ultrasound, that's right when you'd be trying to resolve them. Sometimes it takes several weeks. You could try to schedule it earlier at 18 weeks, but I think that's less accurate. If you can schedule the trip for 16-19 weeks, that would be better! Also more likely not to have any physical symptoms of pregnancy then. I started to get horrid back pain right at 24 weeks ...
posted by yarly at 1:31 PM on June 13, 2018


We went to Australia (from US) when I was 26 weeks, no issues at all but I also had an easy, comfortable pregnancy. I think your timing is very doable, you just might need to build in a little flexibility. I also recommend that you schedule your travel around your 20 week anatomy scan, either before or after.
posted by vunder at 1:35 PM on June 13, 2018


It depends so much on factors that you can't know about until the last minute, my suggestion is to get really good trip cancellation insurance and then go ahead and plan the trip knowing that if you have doubts, you can back out. It's not that expensive - here is quote of $400 for a $10,000 trip that lets you cancel for any reason.
posted by metahawk at 1:41 PM on June 13, 2018


I've had friends who traveled at your stage of pregnancy and did fine. The key for them seemed to be flexibility - having a basic plan but being ready to chuck it if they were feeling tired or nauseous or whatever.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:45 PM on June 13, 2018


It totally can work. Assuming you are feeling okayish now (you seem to be, I figured you'd have mentioned it in your question otherwise!), you will likely continue to feel okayish as you continue until you get to toward the very end. I've had two not-great pregnancies and traveled during both of them, one during a brutal first trimester, and I don't regret it one bit. You are in an even better place; 22-25 weeks will be just about perfect logistically.

Yeah, I wasn't feeling my 100% best on my trips, but way I saw it, I could occasionally feel like crap resentfully cooped up in my house, or I could feel like crap while touring mindblowing ancient ruins and gazing at the shimmering Italian coastline from our apartment balcony. The trip provided a MUCH-needed distraction from how completely miserable I'd been feeling for the past several weeks. I had a couple bad days here and there, and our pace was most definitely slower than we were both used to. I was sad to miss out on hiking in the Cinque Terre, and we had to bail on seeing St. Peter's Basilica the second we walked up and saw the hours-long line to get in. But it didn't matter. We found plenty of other stuff to do, and I have SO many sweet and positive memories from that trip. Some of our hosts, upon finding out I couldn't partake in the welcome glasses of wine or limoncello they'd put out for our arrival, actually sent bottles home with us so I could enjoy them after the birth. (It was so much fun to email them several months later with my belated thanks and a picture of our new addition!)

Logistically, I brought an entire carry-on full of nausea-friendly snacks, wore compression stockings on both flights, carried a copy of my medical records from my OB in case the unthinkable happened while we were away, planned a long nap back at the hotel every afternoon, and made sure there was always somewhere I could sit down when I got woozy.

I suspect you will be just fine. Go and enjoy!
posted by anderjen at 1:48 PM on June 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


I was at about the same point in my pregnancy last October when my husband and I went to Spain for eleven days. I caught a cold at the start of the trip, likely in the airport or on the plane, spent the entire trip sick, and then took more than three weeks to recover when we got home. Apparently your immune system is compromised during pregnancy. I’ve never before been sick for that long and am usually able to clear a cold in just a few days. I had a pretty easy pregnancy overall and the pregnancy itself didn’t make travel difficult so this was pretty unexpected and disappointing.

However, if I were you I would still go on your trip. Looking back on it I don’t regret that we went because the trip was really important to us and we managed to have a good time anyway, but I personally will not plan to travel if I am ever pregnant again.

I don’t share this story intending to scare you. I just wish I had known this was a possible consequence. Since your trip is in August you won’t be in the middle of cold and flu season, but it’s still another factor you might want to consider when you decide. I ended up having to use up a lot of my paid sick leave at work that I would have preferred to have for after the birth.
posted by horses, of courses at 1:48 PM on June 13, 2018


Yes. Feasible. I flew around 28 weeks, and I was just starting to get a bit more uncomfortable then. I think you'll likely be fine.
posted by slidell at 1:56 PM on June 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


(Also, I just reread your question and noticed the wording about "6th annual honeymoon." What a great idea!)
posted by anderjen at 2:04 PM on June 13, 2018 [2 favorites]


Not bananas. You'll be in your sweet spot, probably. I don't know if you have very bad nausea, but for many people, it subsides after the first trimester (for me, yes first pregnancy, not the second). You won't be ridiculously big or uncomfortable yet. For me, this meant less heartburn in the second trimester than the third, and I still slept well. My body hadn't changed much by then except for the puking. Also, second trimester your hormones are... (ahem)... have a fun romantic trip!
posted by Knowyournuts at 2:06 PM on June 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


It just depends. My first pregnancy I got sicker and sicker through the whole pregnancy (1st trimester was mostly fine, 2nd trimester was worse, 3rd trimester was awful), and by 20-25 weeks I couldn't walk the 1/2 mile to public transit without pain & exhaustion. I was sleeping basically any time I wasn't eating or at work (and sometimes at work, too).

My 2nd pregnancy was way better - At 20-25 weeks I totally could have done this.

My advice is spring for the travel insurance so you can cancel last minute if you want, wait and see how you're feeling in general, and if you're feeling good, go for it! Be agile and prepared to change plans on the fly depending on how you're feeling, but you might be totally totally fine! And if you aren't up for it, don't feel guilty about it either! Take the time to do what makes you feel best.
posted by brainmouse at 2:10 PM on June 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


This varies so much. In my first pregnancy, I was cleared at 22 weeks to travel at 28 weeks, and gave birth at 25 weeks due to completely unforeseen complications. In my second pregnancy, I was told not to travel after 20 weeks and absolutely could have done a trip like this in my third trimester.

You can't know ahead of time. I am risk averse enough that I would avoid it.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 3:36 PM on June 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


I will say that eating in France when pregnant was pretty unpleasant for me. Normally I would have no problem with the food, but I found it very hard to find things that I could eat and that seemed appealing when I travelled to France while pregnant. I was in my first trimester, so fairly nauseous and unhappy, and if you're not having as much trouble with nausea/food aversions it might not be too bad. The travel itself I found to be no big deal, it's just not all that much fun to be in a strange place when you really don't feel good and you can't eat much of the food.
posted by ch1x0r at 3:56 PM on June 13, 2018


I went to Italy with friends when I was 28-30 weeks pregnant and I was only cranky because I couldn’t ski with them. It really really depends on the pregnancy though, you’ll either feel great or not, and there’s no real way to know beforehand. If you allow your itinerary to be super flexible you’ll have an easier time.
posted by lydhre at 4:32 PM on June 13, 2018


Anecdata, but Mrs. cnc would have been fine at that point. We experienced very little in the way of doctor recommended travel restrictions. My vote is to go!
posted by cnc at 5:10 PM on June 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


Well, I didn’t even know that I was pregnant at that point in my pregnancy with my son (surprise!), and I did in fact go on a trip. I had no problem hiking 3 miles, crawling sideways across rocks to reach a hidden beach, and getting scuba certified...except for the retrospective horror that I was scuba diving and climbing on rocks while extremely pregnant. Just one anecdote. I did notice that I felt super hot laying out on the beach and needed to take tons of shade breaks. Which made sense once I found out!

My whole pregnancy I felt like I could do anything I did before, except stuff where you are in danger of being hit in the stomach, or getting Zika. I would walk miles in the sun for work up until maybe 37 weeks, which I hated of course, but was ABLE to do. I think at that stage in your pregnancy, the most important thing to consider is the healthcare system of the country you are going to. Usually 24 weeks is the rough time when they will try to care for an extremely premature baby, so once you reach that point you want to be somewhere with good hospitals. France should be fine for that.

For a lot of people that’s a more comfortable time in the pregnancy. You’re usually over the exhaustion and morning sickness, but not yet getting reeeeallly big and uncomfortable. If you’re very petite and/or have a very short torso, you might start to feel very uncomfortable earlier than average though. I would say go for it, as long as you’re ok with canceling the trip if you start to feel really bad.
posted by sometamegazelle at 5:45 PM on June 13, 2018


To be honest, however hard travelling while pregnant is (which is not at all, in my case), travelling with a baby is going to be 100x harder. So you should make the most of it and enjoy being able to do more than one thing a day, the alone time, eating at nice places for dinner, and not lugging around baby gear.
posted by moiraine at 1:28 PM on June 13 [11 favorites −] Favorite added! [!]


This is the true answer. Your annual honeymoon is about to become a travelling theater production complete with sets to stage nap times which will dominate the schedule of any vacation for the next few years. Go and have fun.
posted by WeekendJen at 9:23 AM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]


Like a couple of other posters, I've had a really easy pregnancy (38 weeks now). We traveled by plane at the beginning of my third trimester, and I was at maximum capacity for what I could handle travel-wise right after we came back - and I'm in good shape. Having said that, traveling at weeks 22-25 would have been a piece of cake. You sound like you're super well prepared, in good shape, and feeling good. I say go for it, too.

I'd also plan a flexible schedule with a built-in nap each day (yep, seriously). Even if it's a nap in the car. I'd also bring dried ginger or ginger chews for the plane, and whatever you've used through your pregnancy so far that has kept you comfortable and sane. For me, that has been my favorite pair of leggings, sports sandals with good arch support, and a tennis ball in my purse for when the sciatica acts up.

Oh, and one other thing that I did when we traveled was to reserve an aisle seat for easy access to the bathroom and walking up and down the aisles to stretch my legs and move a bit. That helped a lot with the extended sitting.

Have fun!
posted by onecircleaday at 9:59 AM on June 14, 2018


Most likely everything would be fine, but I do want to give a caution- 22-25 weeks is a really delicate time in a pregnancy... at 23 weeks and 6 days I noticed some tinged discharge and since my doctors was closed that day I went to the hospital just to check- WELL- I was about to give birth. In the medical world its 24 weeks exactly that the fetus becomes a baby and they will try to save it if its born- so they gave me steroids for his lungs and I was in the hospital for the next 3 weeks. I had a cerclage and he ended up staying inside until full term. But it was scary stuff, they could see his head and at one point there were about 5 midwives and 3 doctors in the examination room with their gloves on ready to receive him. So my rule of thumb now is to travel up to 22 weeks (before that, not much could be done anyway) and then be a little more adventurous after 26/27 weeks because babies born at that point usually survive and have fewer problems. So just be aware these things can happen and I'm not even sure how travel insurance works once you've had a baby... You would be insured, but would they? What is the situation like with maternity wards in Paris? These are things I would check out in advance.
posted by catspajammies at 12:25 AM on June 15, 2018


I’m sitting here in my third trimester thinking AH HELL NO. But I was diagnosed with gestational hypertension around week 22 and hospitalised while they got me on meds and stable.

It was miserable. It’s still miserable and I can’t imagine dealing with travel on top of that. Walking sucked and I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t even work for a while after being discharged from the hospital.

But I have had an extraordinarily difficult pregnancy. YMMV (and I hope it does).
posted by guster4lovers at 7:10 PM on June 16, 2018


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